A story inside of a Story

Matthew 21:33-46

A story inside of a story: “The inner stories are told either simply to entertain or more usually to act as an example to the other characters. In either case the story often has symbolic and psychological significance for the characters in the outer story. There is often some parallel between the two stories, and the fiction of the inner story is used to reveal the truth in the outer story.” (Wikipedia)  When Jesus is telling the parable of the Tenants, He is not trying to entertain but is giving an analogy, the Master of the vineyard is God, and the tenants are a people living an independent life from the authority of God.  The servants in the story are the prophets and Judges that God has sent to lead His people and the son, is the one telling the story; Jesus.  But there is one more example in the story inside of the story, and that is you and me, make sure you look for yourself in the story.

Shall we look at the story: “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21:33-40)

How you answer the last sentence, (“When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”) is very important.  You may want to read how they replied to Jesus, and this is Jesus’ reply to them; “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (Matthew 21:42-44) 
Did you see your part in the story, the gospel according to John makes your part in the story very clear; “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”  When you and I received Jesus by faith we entered the story with in the story.  The saddest part of the account is a group of very religious men, who had read the Scriptures, rejected Jesus’ authority over them, and that’s a story still played out today.  This is the summation or the effect of those religious men.  “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.” (Matthew 21:45-46)
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice